book by this author that I had trouble putting down, A book of this length usually takes me a week to read, instead of justdays, I was expecting historical fiction, but it does have fantasy elements like elves and dwarves, No romance, which surprised me, Gritty, Raw, Driven. One man's account, Lieutenant Stiger, of the extraordinary events occurring in the life of a soldier in the imperial legions.
A fascinating book, an intriguing book one in a series I absolutely must continue, The pace is steady as the world building is done, but with just enough emphasis on the events occurring, as setting the stage for much, much more to come.
I am finding, I am enjoying the anticipation, as much as the intensity of the character building, Quite promising as I will quickly begin book two now, A
promising start, on a promising series, Well played, Marc Alan Edelheit, well played, Historical Paranormal Military Adventure
This is mostly a historical style military adventure featuring Captain Stiger and his attache, Eli, an Elf.
The two men are sent to a huge encampment under orders to see General Kromen, They are to then go to Castle Vrell, a stronghold that no one has heard from in weeks, to see what has happened there.
Part of a series, I loved the idea of adding traditional "Fantasy" elements in to a story about a Roman solder, But after just a few chapters I realized it is more of traditional fantasy story with just a bit of "Roman" elements added in.
But if you don't over think it, it is an enjoyable and fast paced read, It is a pretty short book though I finished bookin just a few hours and am about half way done with bookall inday.
I went into Stiger's Tigers actually expecting a Roman novel, what I got instead was a mix of military fantasy and epic fantasy that had some Roman sprinkled in, but a decent bit of a high fantasy identity too.
I enjoyed the characters in this book, I especially enjoy that Stiger is a bit of a hard captain, when I read him I imagine it's what the Black Company would have been like if we got to read from the Captain's POV in the first book rather than Croaker's.
The military elements really did it for me but some of the more high fantasy elements were hit or miss for me.
All in all a very enjoyable book though with a fun world, story, and a well done military journey, I went into this book thinking it just a roman legion historical fiction romp, So you could say I was surprised at the sudden appearance of an elf, But this book gets the balance between the two really spot of, It doesn't lean too much on the ooohhhohoh magic side of the things and spends a lot of time grounded in the day to day running of a legion, which is what I was hoping for.
I am looking forward to getting into the next instalment, I received this book in a Goodreads Giveaway,
Stiger is a Captain in an Imperial Army tasked with resupplying an outpost while retraining and preparing his newly assigned company men.
He has the help of his friend, Eli'Far, and elf with pointed teeth,
The main story sounds interesting and exciting, an army with elves, the possibility of magic, wizards, and and other fantastical things.
I was so pumped to read this, but I found it a huge letdown,
The biggest problem is the plot there isn't one or at least the author forgets there is one until the very end of the book.
When the main event you've been waiting for finally arrives, it is over in a few pages and is hardly worth slogging throughpages to get to.
The majority of the book is spent on telling the various details of training and preparing the men.
It's interesting for a bit, but I want excitement and battles, When we finally get to battles, there are no details, no buildup, It was like going to a fireworks display and seeing one dud and heading home, Really That's it
The second major problem was the repetition, Stiger's name creates fear and terror to everyone he meets, We're told this over and over, although we are never told why! The elf has pointed teeth, The shields are most expensive, If everything was told only once, this book would be half the length,
The overall premise had promise, but sadly it didn't live up to my expectations, So I read allbooks in the "Chronicles of an Imperial Legionary Officer" series at once which means:
.
Read the "Tales of the Seventh" and possibly "The Karus Saga" first, "Tales of the Seventh" I would say absolutely read first because those are prequels involving the same MC, Ben Stiger, and almost certainly worth the read.
Unfortunately for me, I was unable to get interested in "Tales of the Seventh" since I already knew where the story was going.
"The Karus Saga" is a prequel that takes place many centuries earlier and tells the tale of the missing Roman legion that was transported between worlds and created the second "Roman Empire" which Ben Stiger eventually serves.
. I may misremember details and I won't be going back to check as my reading list is too long, In particular, I don't believe any of the books did something ridiculous like ending in the middle of a battle or the like.
I would definitely give such poor authorship a low rating but here the entire series was enjoyable so I am just advising readers to plan on reading allbooks one after another.
. Although the information I found was spotty, there are apparentlymore books in this series on the way with the next book due out in October,.
Book, however, ended on such a high note that I was initially given the impression the series ended there, I "asked" the author about this on Goodreads, com but I'm not holding this review for the answer,
. Booksare all getting the same review,
Ben Stiger, a low ranking officer in the Roman legions on another world, is sent north, with his elf lieutenant.
Unfortunately the legions Stiger joins are rife with the politics of the Empire and, as a result, have fallen into terrible disorder and disgrace.
Stiger, however, is immediately given a mission to scout in force to an outpost that has been cut off from the main camp of the legions.
Seeing the opportunity in the mission Stiger immediately removes his own troops from the festering encampment and sets about returning them to proper legionary order before marching.
Fortunately for Stiger his march is joined by the one cavalry unit that has stayed out of camp politics as much as possible.
Unfortunately for Stiger, his march is joined by a paladin, This is unfortunate because all know paladins only go where the gods send them and the gods only send them to trouble.
Stiger's initial march leads him into discovering a magical sword and the tale of theth, a legion missing foryears and commanded by Stiger's ancestor.
Confrontations with deamons and the rediscovery of lost tribes of dwarves and elves follow, To top it all off Stiger even has to deal with the invasion of the Roman Empire by a neighboring empire, the champions of opposing gods and the occasional dragon.
Bottom line: Definitely worth the read, "He wasnt interested in glory or fame, Stiger was simply intent on doing his duty to the empire, With duty came honor. To Stiger, nothing was more important, "
If you have been “into” FRP if you enjoy novels of military adventure you can add Edelheits Imperial Legionary saga to your list.
"The tension and anxiety he felt were not over his own safety, He worried that they would be discovered before the assault began, He worried that he would make a mistake in leading them in and he would lose men as a result.
He worried that once the men went in, in the heat of the fight, they might panic and forget their training, costing lives.
What if hed missed something critical He worried Despite this, he had not once reconsidered carrying the assault home, It was natural for a commander to worry, He was careful to project a sense of calm and resolve to the men around him, and not betray fear.
He had trained and worked his men hard, He felt they were ready for this, The enemy was before him, and he meant to destroy them, It was as simple as that, "
What we have here is something akin to Imperial Rome, complete with the historical Roman military tactics and equipment in a fantasy realm complete with paladins, elves, magic, etc.
"Stiger had just finished introducing himself and explaining his expectations, which he considered simple, In short: honor, courage, and loyalty to both unit and empire, They were the watchwords by which Stiger lived his life, and he would communicate them by example and force of will alone if necessary.
"
Our hero finds himself sent “south” for a new posting, He has no idea what he will face but he knows what kind of first impression will accompany him, "Ikelys were clients of the Agadow family, which made them a loosely tied ally to the Stigers, " Family is everything and the Stiger family comes with a lot of baggage,
Stigers first assignment consists of legionaries that have lacked any consistent leadership and discipline, "What should have taken less than thirty minutes consumed more than an hour, Stiger was not at all surprised, The men moved almost lethargically, Though he did not like it, he understood why, Filthy and ragged, they were living like animals, Half the men were missing proper marching sandals, More disturbing, they looked hungryalmost starved, It was a testament to the supply problems in the encampment, "
This marks the start of a slow and patient buildup to the battle that defines Stiger and his “Tigers.
” Again, you have to love this genre to find Edelheits patient worldbuilding worthwhile, It also takes a long while to get the back stories that illuminate our hero and his family,
The plot elements in play get some resolution, It dovetails with the next book, but you are expected to acquireimmediately and keep reading, Not quite abut I am rounding up a new years resolution despite the following quibbles:
"In the morning, he would have to watch someone flogged.
Damn damn damn! How he hated the lash, Yet deep down he understood it was a necessary part of the legionarys life, Without it, there would be no order, " I guess this was included because it was a sanctioned form of punishment with Romes legions, And the British Navy believed the same,
There is no mention of daily time in this novel except the usual morning, noon and night.
And then, somehow, we have a way of measuring minutes "The captain had instructed the main body to spend fortyfive minutes of every hour on the move, followed by a fifteenminute break.
"
PseudoRoman historical military fantasy fun! Actual rating:,stars.
Aside from the fact that the plot is virtually nonexistent and that the actual story doesn't really start before themark, this book wasn't revoltingly bad.
I guess it helps that I like dull, repetitive martial training yummy military stuff, You'll probably think the whole thing is boring as fish if you don't, Like dull, repetitive martial training yummy military stuff, I mean,
P, S. The tigers mentioned in the title don't refer to slightly ferocious, striped kitties, in case you were wondering.
This is a complete ripoff, by the way, I want my money back, Sorry, what I got this book for free, you say And your point is Listened to this one within ahour period, Excellent!!
On to "The Tiger".
Ever read a book and know before you finish that you are in for the long haul, If the author wants to writebooks into the series I will read them, If every side character gets a series of his own I'm there, If this epic adventure takes on truly epic proportions I am ok with that, It wasn't perfect. I haven't come across a perfect book yet, However, it was enough to get the hooks into me, Stiger is a classic hero who isn't seeking glory, He just wants to live a useful life and uphold the honor of the empire and his family, I'm a bit in love with him and his sneer already, I was a little disappointed by this one, A mixture between military and fantasy Sounded interesting, I enjoyed the beginning and looked forward to watching Stiger get his rabble of a unit into shape, While he did, it was done at a narrative distance, I wanted to experience the men improving, especially the one .
Instead, the story focused on the higher ranking officers, only passing over the troops in narrative here and there, In fact, that was the overall problem I had with the story, The narrative summary. It's very heavy and I got so bogged down by it I nearly stopped reading halfway though, My mind kept wandering and I not only lost track of the story, but felt it never pulled me in.
I decided to stick it out to the end, hoping that the engagement I experienced in the beginning would resurface, and that the scenes would get more interesting, but they too got bogged down only to rise and then fall.
Not saying the story is bad, just that it wasn't my cup of tea, Overall, I liked it, or parts of it, just didn't like it enough to desire continuing to the next book in the series.
Tigers and elves and dwarfs and legionaries
A fine bit of military fiction with fantasy and quasi historical elements.
Mr. Edelheit is an excellent story teller and a pretty darn good writer as well, He has produced a strong and entertaining tale of uncompromising evil vs good,
Some have complained of a cliched plot and characters, Captain Stiger is an excellent officer so naturally there are similarities to other excellent fictional officers, Richard Sharpe, Honor Harrington, Jack Aubrey, various officers from Hammer's Slammers and other David Drake creations come to mind, Others have complained of things such as the Romans had no knowledge of tobacco, So The Empire in this novel is not Rome, Perhaps there is some connection to Rome but it isn't Rome, The planet is apparently not even Earth, This is a fantasy. A created world. The author can do with it as he wishes, So long as things remain consistent and logical, readers have no reason to complain, I have already started the second volume and so far it meets expectations raised by the quality of volume one.
.